Fly return for cards



Nov. 15, 1960 M. ASTI ETAL FLY RETURN FOR CARDS Filed April 17, 1958 INVENTORS A4an$u f0 31 2 John BY Cavedon, J

ATTORNEYS.

Unite. tates FLY RETURN FOR CARDS Filed Apr. 17, 1958, Ser. No. 729,151

Claims. (Cl. 19-107) This invention relates to carding machines or cards in general, particularly to means for returningfibers or fly to the card hopper for re-processing.

It is well known to collect the so-called fly which occurs at various locations along the card and to return the fly collected to the card hopper to be re-passed or reprocessed through the card mechanism. In such apparatus employed for this purpose, the fly is collected and forced through a conduit by means of moving air to be discharged in the card hopper directly on the fiber mass contained in said hopper. The conduit, therefore, has a discharge outlet or plenum which is positioned directly above the open hopper and as close thereto as is practical. The movement of air expelled at the discharge outlet creates an air turbulance to such a degree that much of the return fly is carried away from the hopper to settle and accumulate here and there on the card and area about the card. Attempts have been made to overcome this objectionable condition but with no satisfactory result. The suction at the inlet of the conduit must be maintained'at a certain degree so as to be effective in drawing the loose fibers from the fiber mass and this results in an undesirable movement of air at the discharge outlet. Attempts have been made to reduce the air movement at the said discharge outlet by making the walls of the outlet of forarninous material for the escape of air through the Walls of the discharge conduit and thus reducing the air flow at the discharge opening. This was but momentarily effective in that the accumulation of fly on said walls blocks the openings to the escape of air therethrough.

Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide means for returning the fly collected to the card hopper at a location therein to prevent the escape of fibers to the atmosphere.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for conveying the collected loose fibers from the card to a location at which the escaping air will act thereon and tend to compact the same.

A more specific object of the invention is to discharge the collected loose fibers into a conduit protected from the mass of fibers which may be contained in the hopper, so as to allow free discharge of said collected fibers within the hopper.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a fragmentary portion of a card embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a generally central sectional view of the portion of the card shown in Figure 1 with parts omitted which are not necessary for an understanding of the pres ent invention; and

Figure 3 is a view illustrating the invention diagrammatically.

Referring to the drawing in more detail, designates ice generally a conventional carding machine or card only so much of which is shown as will be necessary for a clear understanding of the invention. The card has a feed box or hopper 11 to receive the fiber material or mass and is open at the top and may be closed at the bottom by a horizontal extending belt conveyor or feed apron 12. A second belt conveyor or elevating apron 1'3 is located at the rear of the hopper and'extends upwardly on an incline from adjacent the inner end of conveyor 12. The conveyor 13 is made of closely adjacent slats or bars 14,

' which may carry a plurality of pins 15, although the pins are not absolutely necessary. p

The hopper 11 is filled as required with a mass of fibers which engage the conveyor 12 and conveyor 1'3.

The conveyor 12 engages and carries the lower portion of the fiber mass towards conveyor 13 which engages the fibers in known fashion pulling individual fibers from the entire mass. The fibers are carried upwardly by the conveyor 13 and the surplus fibers adhering to the traveling fibers and'extending beyond the pins are swept back i into the hopper by means of doctor-like blades 16 which 1 anism where the fibers are more or less positioned in parallelism and foreign matter removed. The above structures and motions described are well known in the art.

It is well known in card operation that many short fibers, broken fibers and the like become detached from the mass of traveling fibers particularly at locations where the fibers are stripped from one card roller onto another during the processing of the fibers and forming the lap. These loose fibers are referred to by workers in the art as fly and distinguished from lint and other foreign matter and may be returned to the hopper of the card to be admixed wtih the fiber contents of the hopper and re-processed.

Accordingly, to the present invention means are provided for collecting the fly such as a suction conduit 17 provided with a suction head 17 which is positioned at a location along the card at which fly occurs, as for example, at 1 8 in Figure 3. The location indicated 18 is intended in the present instance to be exemplary of any location along the card at which a transfer of fiber mass is made from one card roller 19 on to another card roller '20 and at which fly may be liberated. The conduit 17 extends from the head 17' to the inlet of a motor operated blower 21 which is provided with an exhaust conduit 22 that extends to one side of the hopper 11 at the lower portion thereof. The portion 22 has a right angular bend therein as at 23 and connects with a discharge manifold portion 24 within the hopper 11 through a suitable opening (not shown) in the lower portion of the adjacent side of the said hopper. The manifold 24 extends substantially the full width of the hopper at a location above and closely adjacent to conveyor 12. The manifold 24 is slotted lengthwise as at 25 so as to provide a discharge slot. A lip 26 is provided at each side of slot 25 and extends from slot 25 on a slant toward the conveyor 12. The manifold may, if desired, be partially enclosed in a box 27 which is open at the side adjacent the discharge side of the manifold 24. The upper side 28 of the box extends on a downwardly slant so as to prevent the fiber mass resting thereon from gravitating on to the conveyor 12. The said side 28 forms a baffle which extends beyond the lip 26 a distance suflicient to maintain the discharge slot free of the fiber mass contained in said hopper.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that fly picked up at locations similar to 18 by vacuum means will be carried along conduit 17 to blower 21 and thence through conduit 22 to manifold 24 to be expelled therefrom through slot 25. The fly will be discharged on to the conveyor or apron 12 and beneath such fiber mass which may be contained in the hopper. It will also be ap parent the air discharging through the slot 25 with the fly will have a tendency to compact said fly .and will escape at atmospheric pressure upwardly through the fiber mass contained in the hopper.

The fiy discharged on the conveyor 12 will be advanced thereby toward conveyor 13 which will pick up the fly and fibers from the fiber mass to be admixed with other fibers picked up as the slats of the conveyor 13 travel upwardly through the mass of fibers. Thus, the return fly will be admixed with the non-processed fiber mass within the hopper to a much greater degree than in prior art practice in which said fly is discharged directly on the mass of fibers contained in the hopper, whereby, the fly repassed through the card is thoroughly incorporated into the fiber mass being processed.

We claim:

1. In an apparatus for handling textile fibers from a textile card having a feed hopper with an open top for receiving a fiber mass to be processed through the card mechanism, said apparatus comprising a source of negative pressure, a conduit connected to the source of negative pressure for collecting fibers which become detached from the fiber mass at various locations along the card mechanism, a discharge conduit connected to said source for returning the collected fibers to the feed hopper, said discharge conduit having a portion thereof extending into said hopper below the open top thereof and at such a 4 height that the mass of fibers in the hopper will block the collected fibers from escape from said hopper.

2. In an apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the said portion of the discharge conduit extends into said hopper at the lower end portion thereof.

3. In an apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the said portion of the discharge conduit extends substantially the full width of said hopper and is positioned at the lower end of the hopper.

4. In an apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the said portion of the discharge conduit is positioned to extend in the lower end of the hopper and is provided with an elongated slot for substantially the entire length thereof.

5. In an apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the said portion of the discharge conduit has a discharge slot extending substantially the entire length thereof, said slot having lips at each edge thereof oriented on an angle toward the bottom of said hopper so that the fibers will be directed toward the bottom of the hopper and the fibrous mass in said hopper will be prevented from blocking said slot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED sTATEs PATENTS 467,888 Craggy Jan. 26, 1892 901,045 Stewart Oct. 13, 1908 1,074,468 Ryan Sept. 30, 1913 2,823,423 Suzuki Feb. 18, 1958 2,828,510 Schweizer Apr. 1, 1958 2,857,627 Berberich Oct. 28, 1958 

